British writer

Chapter 156 "Jane Eyre" comic series

Time advances.

Thursday, May 2, 1901

early morning.

The streets of London smelled of alcohol, even overpowering the stench of the Thames.

Newsboys walk through the streets,

"Read the newspaper! "Mirror"! "Mirror"!"

Not many people paid attention to him.

Because Lu's "Lord of the Rings" is serialized every Wednesday, that day's "Mirror" is the most difficult to grab.

During other periods of time, due to the increase in printing production capacity, there is no longer a shortage of supply.

At this moment, the door of a bar on the roadside opened.

boom--

A few hungover men broke out.

Because they drank too much last night, they staggered around and looked like street kids without serious jobs.

In fact, they are workers of the shipping company.

A strong man at the head said: "Nansen! Nansen!"

He turned around and pulled away the crowd,

"Fuck! I called you kid! Didn't you hear?"

Nansen was a little man wearing glasses. He was covering his mouth desperately and his face was purple.

Several people around said: "Boss Clay, this kid can never drink."

Kleinel is near Nansen,

"I said how did you..."

Before he finished speaking, an inexplicable "gurgling, gurgling" sound came from Nansen's throat.

Then he ran to the corner,

"vomit!"

The smell of lees on the street was strong again.

Kleinel's head is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

"Nansen, are you okay? Can you still read the newspaper?"

Nansen supported the wall with his left hand, stretched out his right hand, and made an "OK" gesture. Then he retched again. After making sure that his stomach was emptied, he found a step and sat down, breathing heavily. gas.

Kleinel waved his hand,

"Go and get him a piece of bread and a bowl of water."

A ship worker quickly rushed into the bar,

Not long after, he came out with a wooden tray and handed the food to Nansen.

Nansen wiped his mouth with his sleeve,

As a result, a smell of engine oil flooded into my nose.

He couldn't help it, and once again rushed to the corner next to him, retching violently.

The workers were speechless.

Kleinel walked over, slapped Nansen on the butt, and said, "I told you a long time ago that I told you to drink less! You little accountant, how can you be our opponent when it comes to drinking?"

Nansen finished vomiting this time and sat back down again.

"It was a rare day off yesterday..."

The day before was May 1st, which was Labor Day.

Legally speaking, this holiday has not yet been written into the express terms, but why do workers need the approval of their bosses to take a holiday?

Starting from May 1, 1890, workers from various European and American countries took the lead in taking to the streets, holding grand demonstrations and rallies to fight for their legitimate rights and interests.

Therefore, every day on this day, working people all over the world gather and march to celebrate.

Is the law imperfect?

It doesn't matter, they have their own vacation.

Clennell asked, "Are you okay?"

Nansen nodded,

"No problem. Put yesterday's...um...Boss Clay, why didn't you let me read the newspaper yesterday?"

Clennell explained: "It was such a mess yesterday, and I didn't want such a precious newspaper to get wet with beer being spilled everywhere."

As he spoke, he blinked mysteriously,

"I've heard that if you can collect all the serials of "Lord of the Rings", these "Mirrors" can be sold for a very high price."

Nansen's lips twitched,

"You said you are illiterate..."

Kleiner didn't feel offended by being complained about like this, and said with a smile: "I'm not completely illiterate. For example, the words 'beer', 'bread', 'flour', and 'potatoes' used in ordering food, I know them all, so the Mirror can still read them.”

He flipped through the newspaper and found a page from the People's Livelihood section.

There are various charts on it.

Kleiner asked: "Look here, is it talking about changes in flour prices?"

Nansen nodded,

"right."

This is the great thing about "Mirror".

Even people who are illiterate can still read through some pages related to people's livelihood very smoothly because the editors use very simple words.

Moreover, to take a step back, even if most of the words are really incomprehensible, there are still those bar graphs and line graphs. Readers only need to know the keywords.

Clennell said: "Isn't there recently one called the Daily Times? It's far worse than the Mirror."

Nansen echoed "Yeah\

,"At this time, he felt that he was much better, so he took the newspaper and

For a moment, everyone around him gathered around.

Every Wednesday, the workers pointed at Nansen and read the story of "The Lord of the Rings."

Nansen cleared his throat.

"Ah, the name of this chapter is "Many Meetings", and it is the first chapter of the second volume.' Frodo woke up and found himself lying on the bed. At first he thought he had lost the battle, and he still did I had a long and unpleasant dream, the dream is still lingering on the edge of my memory'..."

For a while, all the workers became quiet.

They were all listening quietly.

The sun rises slowly, and gradually some housewives go out to do shopping, holding cloth bags filled with potatoes and flour in their hands.

The streets are somewhere in between loud and quiet.

At this moment, Nansen stopped.

Clennell asked, "What's wrong?"

Nansen spread his hands and replied: "I encountered a word that I am not very sure of. The spelling is, C——O——N——Q——U——E——R——E——D, if I spell it myself , the result is 'conquered'."

Someone said: "'Conquered'? Conquer~ See the context."

Nansen hesitated for a moment.

"I'll ask someone."

After saying that, he turned around and rushed into the bar.

Although Nansen is literate, he is not very good at reading. He can only guess the pronunciation of some uncommon words through spelling, and then understand the meaning of the word through pronunciation.

It is very common to ask someone halfway.

A group of ship workers immediately became idle, leaning against the wall and watching the early risers.

Someone asked: "Boss Clay, how long until work starts?"

Clennel looked at the sky,

"It's early~"

I had a great day yesterday, and I felt a bit lost in time.

The workers were staring at each other, extremely bored. Someone asked: "Who do you think is the most powerful among the Fellowship of the Ring?"

This question is similar to "Who is the strongest among Jin Yong's works?" and is very debatable.

Discussions arose everywhere,

"Needless to say? It must be Gandalf! He can force powerful enemies back with just a wave of his hand."

"Why do I think it's Strider?"

"You mean Aragorn...why?"

"Aragorn was entrusted by Gandalf to join the team. Moreover, in this kind of novels, the later someone appears, the more powerful they are in combat."

"Then I also said that it is Elrond who can use Veya from the Three Elven Rings to release floods."

"Elrond is not the Fellowship of the Ring!"

…

A group of people got into a fight.

Kleinel was speechless and said: "I don't know who is the strongest among them, but I know that Frodo is definitely the strongest."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone laughed.

They started discussing again why Lu wanted Frodo to be the protagonist.

Clennell shrugged, with an expression that said, "You can't teach a child," and said, "Look, look, I'll tell you not to study hard! Anyone who has read "The Hobbit" knows why Frodo can be a good teacher. main character."

All the ship workers were quite speechless.

Someone whispered: "It sounds like Boss Clay likes to read."

Kleinel didn't bother to refute;

He walked to the side and waved to a newsboy,

"Boy, come here!"

Newsboys are all slippery loaches, and they are still very scared when they see someone serving food, and when they meet a big guy like Kleiner.

He approached timidly,

"gentlemen?"

Kleinel couldn't help but laugh,

"Hahaha! 'Sir'? I like it! Give me a copy of the Mirror."

"Mirror" is the best seller,

Therefore, the newsboy also has the most stock, and he can get one by just picking one up.

Clennell read newspapers without reading the words, only looking at the pictures, so he quickly flipped through the pages.

But when it came to the final version, he was stunned.

He asked the newsboy: "What is this?"

How could the newsboy understand this?

"I...I don't know either."

After speaking, he reminded in a low voice: "Sir, the Mirror is 3 pence a copy."

Kleiner saw so many pictures on the last page, and the drawings were all very good. He felt that it didn't matter if he paid for them, so he took out a coin from his body and handed it to the newsboy. He then returned to the door of the bar with the newspaper and curiously looked at the pictures. What exactly is a picture?

Unexpectedly, these paintings turned out to be a story:

A little girl was fostered in the home of a certain male elder.

After the elder's death, the girl lived a life of discrimination and abuse. The male elder's widow regarded the girl as a thorn in her side and isolated her from her own children.

Finally, the girl broke out completely after being bullied again.

She caused a scene and made the conflict and confrontation public until she was sent away.

…

The story stops here.

When Kleiner finished reading, he felt empty in his heart and whispered: "This girl knows how to resist better than many big men. Hehe hehe..."

Someone next to me asked: "What kind of big man?"

Kleinel raised his head,

At this time, he discovered that Nansen had returned. "Many Meetings" had just finished speaking, and a group of workers were taking a break.

Kleinel hadn't finished listening to the book, and didn't know whether he should regret it or not.

He felt that "The Lord of the Rings" was very good, but the paintings he saw were also very good.

He came forward,

"Nansen, look at it."

Nansen hadn't fully sobered up from the wine yet, so he closed his eyes to rest.

He opened his eyes and looked at the other person dimly,

"What's wrong, Boss Clay?"

Clennell handed the newspaper over and said, "Look at this, what are these pictures?"

99.9% of what is published in newspapers now are single-frame cartoons, so Clennell uses "these pictures" to describe them because he has no idea about cartoons.

When Nansen saw the cartoon, he was a little disdainful at first.

But after reading a few pieces, he couldn't help but become serious and whispered: "This is "Jane Eyre"..."

Kleiner was confused.

"What? What? That sounds like a name..."

Nansen said: "It is a person's name, yes, but it is also the title of a book. "Jane Eyre" is a novel written by the female writer Charlotte Bronte. It is said to be her autobiography. This novel is a masterpiece recorded in history. .”

Kleinel:! ! !

"You mean, I read a famous book without knowing it?"

Nansen scratched his head,

Can this method be considered "reading"?

Can't answer it at all.

He asked: "Boss Clay, you don't know... you don't know much about reading, can you read it clearly?"

Kleinel nodded and repeated his understanding.

Nansen said: "It's basically true. The little girl is called Jane Eyre, and the male relative is her uncle, Mr. Reed. The person who bullied her is her aunt, Mrs. Reed."

Kleinel was curious,

"Have you read Jane Eyre?"

Nansen shook his head,

"That's not true. But I have heard some of the outline of the story, so I know the characters in it."

I haven’t read it, mainly because Bronte is a female writer.

In London of this era, women in all walks of life are still treated with colored glasses.

But Nansen no longer thinks so at this moment,

He joined a shipping company as an accountant, but he had done a lot of hard work, so he was fully aware that he was just a weakling, and he had no position to look down on himself and look down on others.

"These paintings are really nice," he said.

Kleinel nodded,

“It’s quite interesting to be able to read classics without knowing a lot of Chinese characters.”

He turned back to greet his co-workers,

"Hey! You all come here and take a look!"

A group of workers gathered around and looked at the "Jane Eyre" comics curiously.

Not long after, someone scolded: "Nah! This old witch makes you want to beat her up just by looking at her. If I were this girl, I would definitely drown the old witch in the toilet and let her eat her own feces!"

These words immediately resonated with the others,

Someone muttered: "It's true! But I quite envy her, she has the opportunity to study."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Although education has begun to become popular in Britain today, in many cases it is only superficial.

Otherwise, why would there be so many newsboys on the street?

Someone asked: "Nansen, what book is this girl reading?"

Nansen squinted for a long time.

"I can't see it! Printing doesn't work."

Everyone made regretful sounds.

Kleiner said: "Well, don't expect anything to happen to a little girl. How about 'drowning in the toilet'? It would be nice if you have the courage to resist."

After saying that, he pushed Nansen's shoulder.

"Tell them about Jane Eyre, too."

This was said so unclearly that the other workers thought that Kleiner was instructing Nansen to spoil the story, so they quickly blocked their ears.

Kleinel: "..."

He yelled at the top of his lungs: "What are you doing? I just asked Nansen to tell you what "Jane Eyre" is!"

Nansen understood and repeated what he had just said: "Jane Eyre is a novel written by the female writer Charlotte Bronte. It is said to be her autobiography. This novel is recorded in history. Masterpiece.”

Everyone was confused,

After a while, discussions began to spread.

"Is this a famous book?"

"Idiot!"

"We can actually read classics!"

…

They were all shocked.

At this time, someone asked: "Nathan, which book is more powerful than "Jane Eyre" or "The Lord of the Rings"?"

Nansen scratched his head in embarrassment and replied: "This... how can this be compared? I can only say that both books are great, but they are great in different directions. From a reading point of view, "Jane Eyre" is far better than "Jane Eyre". Far less popular than The Lord of the Rings."

Clennell said: "How is that possible? "Jane Eyre" is obviously more popular. You see, we are not very literate, but we can understand it."

Nansen was speechless for a moment.

After a long time, he said: "Maybe because the form is different."

He pointed at the comics,

"Pictures are definitely easier to read than text. One day in the future, maybe "Lord of the Rings" will become like this~"

Kleinel couldn't help but be greatly encouraged.

"That's great! I've long wanted to see what the Nazgul look like."

The topic returned to "The Lord of the Rings".

Nansen asked: "There are two more chapters in the following series. Do you want to listen?"

Of course the workers wanted to listen, and they nodded like chickens pecking at rice.

But there were still a few people who came out.

"Wait for us for a while. I'll buy a copy of today's "Mirror" first, and then go back and take a good look at the "Jane Eyre"."

Others echoed,

"Give me one too!"

"I also!"

"And I!"

…